Techies help me!

[GoGeTa006]

eliminating driver issues? or some rogue software? or even some annoying virus? Thats a fair starting point of diagnosing issues.... Its a fair assumption that most people are using wondows, if your rocking a mac then go chuck it back to apple, if your running a unix/linux system you should know what your doing

seriously, think for a sec before posting

did you even read my first post to see all the things i had already tried?

[Freedom Kira]

... Good to know that reinstalling the entire freaking OS is the first thing you do to troubleshoot a problem. I'll know not to ask you for computer advice anytime soon.

[Volusus]

Sabertooth + all these higher end boards are a total waste of money man, there's really little very point in purchasing anything above an entry level board these days unless you wish to heavily overvolt your cpu. These days even entry level B75 or whatever chipset boards have SATA3/USB3 as well as decent enough VRM for stock performance. Even Asrock low end mobos do the job, and I'd much rather upgrade that psu

[GoGeTa006]

... Good to know that reinstalling the entire freaking OS is the first thing you do to troubleshoot a problem. I'll know not to ask you for computer advice anytime soon.

Hahaha! that wasnt the first thing I tried obviously. . .that was the first "advanced" thing I tried. . .other than all the basic Troubleshoot 101 shit you do in pre-school

Sabertooth + all these higher end boards are a total waste of money man, there's really little very point in purchasing anything above an entry level board these days unless you wish to heavily overvolt your cpu. These days even entry level B75 or whatever chipset boards have SATA3/USB3 as well as decent enough VRM for stock performance. Even Asrock low end mobos do the job, and I'd much rather upgrade that psu

I know but the Saberthoot is SOOO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL!
700W not good enough? nah If I had money I would've gotten a 680 or something

[Volusus]

The wattage itself is fine, you'll likely never break 250w in realistic scenarios. There are a few 700w OCZ units but in general they are pretty mediocre (modxstreams suck, fatal1tys are alright but not great.) Nothing is going to blow up on you or anything, I just think it'd be money better spent if you upgraded it rather than paying for a gimmicky mobo

[Saras]

Sabertooth + all these higher end boards are a total waste of money man, there's really little very point in purchasing anything above an entry level board these days unless you wish to heavily overvolt your cpu. These days even entry level B75 or whatever chipset boards have SATA3/USB3 as well as decent enough VRM for stock performance. Even Asrock low end mobos do the job, and I'd much rather upgrade that psu

Except he went for a 3570k. Which implies that he will overvolt the shit out of it.

[kitamesume]

standard Z77 like the Asrock Pro3 is plenty though.

[Volusus]

Sabertooth + all these higher end boards are a total waste of money man, there's really little very point in purchasing anything above an entry level board these days unless you wish to heavily overvolt your cpu. These days even entry level B75 or whatever chipset boards have SATA3/USB3 as well as decent enough VRM for stock performance. Even Asrock low end mobos do the job, and I'd much rather upgrade that psu

Except he went for a 3570k. Which implies that he will overvolt the shit out of it.

Perhaps it does, but I see alot of people buying the k chip over the locked one simply because its only an extra 10 dollars and they'd like it just in case they need to do it in the future.

[raandomer]

did you even read my first post to see all the things i had already tried?

Do YOU even bloody read?

nice, good that your got it working again.
for future references...

... Good to know that reinstalling the entire freaking OS is the first thing you do to troubleshoot a problem. I'll know not to ask you for computer advice anytime soon.

whats wrong with reinstalling? its a quick easy way to get rid of any software issues? (unless your a program whore and need 30 programs just to surf the web... and your msconfig has over 100 items in it)
Guess what the first thing most pc shops/oem do when they have a problem pc on their hands... reinstall/reimage windows

obviously if youve done some research and was able to associate the symptoms with a particular rogue program then it might be the quicker and easier solution but usually you'll find most people just have so much crap accumulated anyway that nuking it completely would make it run so much faster

Sabertooth is aimed more at modders, its the first mobo that can actually hide most of its ugly (subjectively) innards and its really easy to paint it so you can get a nice colour scheme going. You're going to end up paying a premium for that.
Like a few people have already said, a lowish end z77 board have enough features and decent enough vrm for most light/moderate oc. Just make sure theres some airflow around the vrm chips, they can get quite hot once you overvolt

[lothar863]

did you even read my first post to see all the things i had already tried?

Do YOU even bloody read?

nice, good that your got it working again.
for future references...

... Good to know that reinstalling the entire freaking OS is the first thing you do to troubleshoot a problem. I'll know not to ask you for computer advice anytime soon.

whats wrong with reinstalling? its a quick easy way to get rid of any software issues? (unless your a program whore and need 30 programs just to surf the web... and your msconfig has over 100 items in it)
Guess what the first thing most pc shops/oem do when they have a problem pc on their hands... reinstall/reimage windows

obviously if youve done some research and was able to associate the symptoms with a particular rogue program then it might be the quicker and easier solution but usually you'll find most people just have so much crap accumulated anyway that nuking it completely would make it run so much faster

Sabertooth is aimed more at modders, its the first mobo that can actually hide most of its ugly (subjectively) innards and its really easy to paint it so you can get a nice colour scheme going. You're going to end up paying a premium for that.
Like a few people have already said, a lowish end z77 board have enough features and decent enough vrm for most light/moderate oc. Just make sure theres some airflow around the vrm chips, they can get quite hot once you overvolt

That is only the first thing the shop does if they are a lousy shop/tech

From that first pic that problem could have been nothing but video
referring to this one
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4981/img0132wr.jpg
if any real tech and not someone that just knows a little saw that the problem would have been identified in 5 mins
they only catch is what part of the video is causing the problem
discrete card, on board card, system memory that on board card is using?
But the ONLY thing that will ever give a screen like that is a bad video issue

[raandomer]

and again.............

You can try diagnosing the usual suspects first (ram, bent pins, hdd, gpu, psu) but yeah you'll need to know the telltail signs, eg data corruption = hdd or ram, random artifacts/bsod = ram, artifacts ingame = gpu/psu, etc

also, ram can do that too, though extremely rare, i think i've only seen it happen once. It could even be the pcie slot playing up. so no, its a good indication that gpu is to blame but is not always the case, and as you can see from this time its the mobo doing something weird

[kitamesume]

That is only the first thing the shop does if they are a lousy shop/tech

From that first pic that problem could have been nothing but video
referring to this one
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4981/img0132wr.jpg
if any real tech and not someone that just knows a little saw that the problem would have been identified in 5 mins
they only catch is what part of the video is causing the problem
discrete card, on board card, system memory that on board card is using?
But the ONLY thing that will ever give a screen like that is a bad video issue

not entirely, a bad driver does that, i've experienced it from a lousy AMD driver beta version.
so yes, theres not just the usual parts causing it, even the unexpected ones can cause issues, like what? bad VRMs supply, a shitty powersupply overvolting the parts, a bad motherboard trace having one signal trace disconnected or even motherboard sockets with bent pins, and even a bad BIOS version can cause it.

-------------

as for overclocking, well do note the fact that there hasn't been any single CPU that can suck over 300watts even OCed to 6.3Ghz, usually the SB-E/IVY-E are the only ones that can breach that.
now considering each PCI-E should supply 75watts on each socket, plus other factors, you can say that an M-ATX should be able to handle at least 600watts max load, most mainstream board are capable of that.

[Freedom Kira]

whats wrong with reinstalling? its a quick easy way to get rid of any software issues? (unless your a program whore and need 30 programs just to surf the web... and your msconfig has over 100 items in it)
Guess what the first thing most pc shops/oem do when they have a problem pc on their hands... reinstall/reimage windows

Easy, yes; quick, no. Especially if you play more than a couple games or have lots of work that you can't lose.

It's nice that you only ever surf the web on your computer, as I'd assume from your "just to surf the web" comment. Maybe you should get a Chromebook. It automatically reinstalls itself whenever it encounters problems, too, if I recall correctly. Sounds like the perfect match for you.

[Pentium100]

Easy, yes; quick, no. Especially if you play more than a couple games or have lots of work that you can't lose.

Depending on the problem, reinstalling Windows can be a useful advice. However, I do not install the new copy of Windows over my old. I grab an unused hard drive (doesn't really matter how big, as long as Windows can fit in it) and install the new copy there. If the problem remains, I can continue troubleshooting the hardware, if it goes away, I start troubleshooting the software (on my old install).
Though first I troubleshoot the hardware - look for bad caps, probe the PSU output with an oscilloscope, test RAM... If I am installing a new copy of Windows to an unused HDD, it means I ran out of better ideas.

[kitamesume]

whats wrong with reinstalling? its a quick easy way to get rid of any software issues? (unless your a program whore and need 30 programs just to surf the web... and your msconfig has over 100 items in it)
Guess what the first thing most pc shops/oem do when they have a problem pc on their hands... reinstall/reimage windows

Easy, yes; quick, no. Especially if you play more than a couple games or have lots of work that you can't lose.

just having a slow harddrive is enough to drive you mad from just reinstalling, takes over 2hours if i recall correctly.
and thats with the bare installation of the OS, downloading the latest drivers with the slowest of internet is also maddening.

edit: as for games and saves though, well they can be easily reinstalled if you still have their installers at hand, you don't really need to install them all at once, just install the ones you currently play.
having the games and saves on another harddrive or even just a partition saves you the hassle of losing them, except for games that are tied within registry entries and such.

[Pentium100]

having the games and saves on another harddrive or even just a partition saves you the hassle of losing them, except for games that are tied within registry entries and such.

And all the software I installed (and the settings I changed) in the last 5 years...

[Saras]

Granted, this should be viewed on a case by case basis.

For some, it's an really big hassle to nuke the system. But that's not universal. For me, not so much, I can get it all up and running in half an hour thanks to ninite and steam.

[lothar863]

That is only the first thing the shop does if they are a lousy shop/tech

From that first pic that problem could have been nothing but video
referring to this one
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4981/img0132wr.jpg
if any real tech and not someone that just knows a little saw that the problem would have been identified in 5 mins
they only catch is what part of the video is causing the problem
discrete card, on board card, system memory that on board card is using?
But the ONLY thing that will ever give a screen like that is a bad video issue

not entirely, a bad driver does that, i've experienced it from a lousy AMD driver beta version.
so yes, theres not just the usual parts causing it, even the unexpected ones can cause issues, like what? bad VRMs supply, a shitty powersupply overvolting the parts, a bad motherboard trace having one signal trace disconnected or even motherboard sockets with bent pins, and even a bad BIOS version can cause it.

-------------

as for overclocking, well do note the fact that there hasn't been any single CPU that can suck over 300watts even OCed to 6.3Ghz, usually the SB-E/IVY-E are the only ones that can breach that.
now considering each PCI-E should supply 75watts on each socket, plus other factors, you can say that an M-ATX should be able to handle at least 600watts max load, most mainstream board are capable of that.

That will only every be cause by a bad video issue. drivers will not do that.
That is ALWAYS a bad component in the video.
Which if you look bad the system had bad memory which the on board video would have been using.

[kitamesume]

similar case - http://www.overclock.net/t/640153/gtx-295-screwed-or-driver-problem - driver problem.

why are you dead set with it being the video card? whats your basis.

edit: my basis of why the driver may be a culprit is that its a "driver" and a "driver" drives the "GPU", hah! so if the "driver" is insane then it'd drive the "GPU" insane.

[lothar863]

similar case - http://www.overclock.net/t/640153/gtx-295-screwed-or-driver-problem - driver problem.

why are you dead set with it being the video card? whats your basis.

edit: my basis of why the driver may be a culprit is that its a "driver" and a "driver" drives the "GPU", hah! so if the "driver" is insane then it'd drive the "GPU" insane.

That is a completely different issue
1 those were in games not in windows the windows desktop never showed corruption
2 the system never locked up

This problem present in windows along with BSOD and FAILED memory tests

My basis?
I have done tect for 13+ years at this point
I am a current HP Lv2 escalation tech
I have worked for HP, AT&T, Dell and other places as well as do my own consulting business for local companies

If a tech sees a screen like that and doesn't immediately check the hard ware then they are not a knowledgeable tech.
In this case it was likely the bad system memory causing the video corruption
After the user swapped out to different memory the system ran fine except for 1 lockup which could have been caused by incorrect voltages etc

In the future you can use this
http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm
Not just for burn in but testing
Set the 3d graphics test going and if it fails/artifacts then you know you have a graphics issue
If you are using on board you have to check the system memory
If using an add on card there really isn't much to check
You would only have insufficient power if the system wasn't built right along with lose cables
A failing power supply will present with other more annoying issues

And here have some links
Bad video card
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1216277
Bad video card
http://www.geekyramblings.net/2008/09/18/bad-video-card/